Day One Beginner - Can you guys help me start in the right direction?

[davisoneil]

Hi All,
For all of my music career, I have only been a mobile DJ playing house parties, etc.
I absolutely love it but am finally interested in beginning to produce some of my own tracks.

With that in mind, I have no idea where to begin. So my question is: If you were telling someone on Day 1 of being interested in producing their own music, what are the first steps you would give them?

I read a lot of forums and hear about a lot of technology, but I'd love your personal advice on which tools you'd invest in first, where you would go to learn, etc.


Thank you!

Davis Oneil

[DoomJockey]

Youtube is your friend. Start watching random videos on how to get started and pick a DAW and just start getting dirty! Get some books and read some manuals on the fundamentals of sound and music theory so that you'll know what certain terms mean that you may have never really heard or paid much attention too. Like learning what a compressor really does, the difference between MIDI and Audio, the differences in composition/mixing/mastering etc.

I always recommend Youtube channel Sadowick Production. He has a how to guide on everything in Ableton which is a popular DAW and does a really good job of basic explanations of everything. You'll hear everybody and their mama give you their opinion on which DAW to use...just pick one and stick with it. There are tons of them. I started with Ableton and still use Ableton, but have thought of picking up Logic since I know own a MacBook and want some of the mixing tools it has. That's down the road for you though.

Get a few free sample packs that are probably really easy to find and just start messing around and learning how to use whatever program you choose. You'll learn a ton just by flipping switches and making mistakes. Truly and honestly you don't need anything else other than your computer and some headphones to get started. After you get a little experience under your belt, the next best thing you could invest in is a good set of monitor speakers and an audio interface. A good inexpensive set is the Presonus Eris E5's; very reasonably priced and absolutely phenomenal speakers. I also use the Presonus AudioBox as my interface. The price can go WAAAAY up from what these cost, but in due time.

Most important thing to remember is patience. Patience and practice. You're going to fail, you're going to suck. For a long time. Just keep practicing and eventually things will start to make sense and you'll start making decent music eventually. Depending on how intelligent you are, how good your ears and creativity are and your level of dedication are the biggest deciding factors in how successful you will become.

Best of luck! If you have any deep questions feel free to shoot me a message! I love teaching about what I've learned and helping other people get their start in production because it in turn makes me a better producer, so it's a win win!

[mitchiemasha]

First goal: PROTECT YOUR EARS. To get good at production will take time, a lot of time. It's no good to be half deaf with serious tinnitus at certain frequencies, once you can do it.

2nd Goal: A GOOD SET OF MONITORS, a seriously good set, break the bank. The better you buy now will save an upgrade later and the faster you will learn them. Plus if you fail, give up, they will sell for more.

3rd Goal: ACOUSTIC TREATMENT. Your monitors are no good if your room stinks. The bigger the driver the worse it gets, especially in a smaller room. You need seriously thick fiberglass panels, high density, rigid stuff. Get some fluffier stuff while your at it. Whack the fluffy stuff in a frame, wrap it in acoustically transparent material, stick it on the wall, use loo roll inners to create a 6" gap. The more rigid stuff doesn't need a frame, whack some material round them 2 deep and stack them 2 high, in the corners of your room. You'll need a cloud too.

Some worry about the fibres and glues in the panel but it doesn't seem to be causing a problem for the many studio pros who have sat 24/7, for years, in these environments. There are newer, more expensive, supposedly 'safer' compounded slabs but it's mainly the glue not the fibers (it's not asbestos) that's an issue. Just leave them some where to vent for a few weeks. A painter likely deals with worse VOC's on a daily basis.

Acoustic treatment and sound proofing are 2 different things for 2 different purposes. Egg boxes do not work (at all) and the foam off ebay does little to nothing to help in the problematic lower mid frequencies. And, foam still doesn't avoid potential VOC's, these can be made from nasty compounds too. Just remember, if it's new, let it air off first, reducing the concentration build up in your room.

Now all that's out the way we can talk music...

If you want goto sounds... NEXUS 100%. This will blow your mind as a beginner. It's a VST and works in any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that uses VST's. Many wannabes hate on it. It's like the sync button for Dj's to producers. The pirate is no good, outdated packs, BUY IT!!! If you want to get more into sound design, this won't be as good for you, it is a romplayer. Sylenth, Massive, Vstation, Z3ta are other great synths, they are MANY more but I don't own them. Kontakt has amazing urban drum kits.

It's all about layers, putting a sound in it's place, ducking and making it sound loud when it's low. Psycho acoustic, for instance, the HAAS effect, allow you to pan sounds and delay them within 20 ms to make it sound wide but not too wide, it will go out of phase and cancel. Phase is important.

Bass is always mono, you can put it stereo but the wavelength is so big no one will notice, if you have phase issues, it will cancel. If a sound is meant to be mid range cut the low range, hell... cut the low range on nearly everything but the sub (until you learn when not too). Did I say sub! Stick a sine wave at the lowest note possible, matching your bass melody, now the room will shake. But make sure it doesn't fight with the kick, that's where ducking comes in. 2 sounds at the same place can't occupy the same place, they either add or subtract from each other, which can sound good when done right but messy when not. When your drums don't sound right... it's because they're not in key, yes, drums have a key, many garage band musicians will argue they don't but they are wrong. When using sample packs instead of predesigned drum kits/Vst's etc this can be an issue, it's hard to learn drum key, as drum sounds are a fast transition from 1 key to another.

Now making it loud, COMPRESSION. Remember when we cut all that low end, this is why. The low end on everytrack will add together. Once you start to compress the track and boost it, to make it louder, all this low end will turn into a complete mess. it's easier to cut it and let that nice clean sine wave do it all for you.

Well that turned into a long post. I was only just getting started.

[mitchiemasha]

Ohh and when i say bass is always mono, i mean the sub bass. A bass line can have a lot of mid and even high frequencies that can be widened

Where you put your speakers is the most important thing.

[Tomas_I]

Hey, what's up?
I also strongly recomend checking out Zen World's youtube channel. He helped me a lot with production techniques and overall advices!
Bear in mind that perseverence is the core of all success. Just don't give up. Not until you have trully given your sustained full effort for far too long.
Wish you luck!

[juxtpose1]

Know any other people that produce? Hang out with them. Yeah youtube is a good beginning point though take it with a grain of salt, not all the info there is hundred percent correct (as are these forums haha). Learn to use your DAW, learn how to edit tracks, cut paste copy. Put a whole bunch of stuff together and make a song using samples. Have some basic sof synths, mess with presets. Mixing things would be the next step, figuring out basic use of EQ and then the mythical art of compression

[djshire]

Mitch, I was totally with everything you said until....

If you want goto sounds... NEXUS 100%. This will blow your mind as a beginner. It's a VST and works in any DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that uses VST's. Many wannabes hate on it. It's like the sync button for Dj's to producers. The pirate is no good, outdated packs, BUY IT!!! If you want to get more into sound design, this won't be as good for you, it is a romplayer. Sylenth, Massive, Vstation, Z3ta are other great synths, they are MANY more but I don't own them. Kontakt has amazing urban drum kits.

1) Nexus is great if you want to sound like everyone else.
2) Its expensive.
3) "Wannabes hate on it"? I hate on it because its overused and is the easy way out.
4) Rompler, not romplayer.


Davis, important question: what kind of music do you want to make? Surprised no one asked that.

Also, what DAW are you using/going to use? Each one has its own pros and cons, and depending on what you want to make and how you're going to make it (samples, synthesis, mixture), there may be a better fit DAW than another.

Mitch did hit on something I was going to mention: learn to mix. Learn about EQs, compressors, limiters. Learn about frequencies, where each element should sit in the mix, and how to make it all work together. However, loud is not always good. Learn what a transient is, how compression and limiting affect it, and what the "loudness wars" are.

In this day and age, you don't necessarily need to know synthesis, but it helps. Being able to make your own sounds, understanding why a preset sounds why it does, are important things to know. Know what each effect (chorus, flanger, delay, etc.) does, so that when you hear that sound you want to recreate (from another song or inside your head), you can say what to use to do so.

Knowing a little bit of music theory helps, though for some genres/sub-genres/micro-genres, it helps more than others.

[mitchiemasha]

1. Lol.. I did say goto sounds...

2. Not compared to the actual hardware it sounds like, especially all the free packs you get at Christmas etc. Just don't buy the full thing all at once. If anything, i'd say other VST's are cheap (but still really good).

3. There's no easy or hardway. There's just people liking what you do or people not liking what you do. To many, doing it the hardway is easy and vice versa.

4. Rompler Rom player, same thing but you are right.
I referred to it as a romplayer as it's more easy to understand what it is. The name is derived from the hardware synths that played samples stored on rom. I still have a few of my old favourites.

The main reason I recommend Nexus 100% is because I know how off putting it can be when you have poop sounds. I did a lot of music production in the early 00's, there was nothing. My flagship is a Virus TI and I still recommend Nexus. The simplicity of being able to turn it on and jam away, all those sounds you love, everything that got you wanting to do this, all at your finger tips. Jumping through the presets, jamming away, will see many hours simply disappear. In no time at all your keyboard skills will explode. I wish I had it when i was rocking on the EMU's and 1080's. For a new beginner it will keep them locked with love. Not everyone want's to be a sound designer, some people just want to be musicians. Turning on Nexus is like a guitarist picking up a guitar and waking it through his favourite peddle.

Wait to you hear Avenger, it's practically Nexus Unlocked but i rarely go in the studio now so probably wont be getting it. Too busy modding retro board games for us all to play, off nights, no midweek partying in me anymore, lol!

Doubt the OP be back!!!